In the medical field, patient consent for having their X-ray or MR image taken for diagnosis or for making their imagery available for clinical studies is becoming an increasingly sensitive issue. This is even the more so, as medical image data becomes easily accessible through data networks. Also, it is now increasingly common to hand out the image data to patients on mobile storage devices such as CDs or memory sticks. Again this may invite for possible abuse or at least unintended misuse for at least the following reasons.
These days, many standard viewing software modules furnish the option for interactively controlled direct volume rendering (DVR). With DVR one can effect with ease displaying of volumetric renderings directly from 3D raster scan data without requiring a prior segmentation of the body or the organs.
But these 3D direct volume rendering options can be used to (possibly inadvertently or with malicious intent) produce a display of the outer surface or silhouette of the whole body or a body part such as torso or head. Due to the penetrating properties of e.g. X-rays and MR signals, the patient then appears “naked” in the rendering, and may even be recognizable visually. Some patients may perceive this sort of rendering of their head or torso as inappropriate if seen by unauthorized or non-medical personnel, or even when seen inadvertently by medical personnel when there is no medical necessity for this. Abuse may be ripe for instance by publishing this volume renderings through communication networks (internet postings, social media) if the data falls into unauthorized hands, for instance if the mobile storage device on which the data is held gets lost or is stolen or is otherwise procured illegally by hacking the user's computer, etc.
The wide-spread availability of this kind of rendering software may discourage patients from giving their consent for medical imaging or from making their image data available for clinical studies.